With all due respect, you are in over your head. You have a young horse who has openly kicked at you. What is stopping him from chasing you down and trampling you?
Nothing. He could do it at any time. You need to take a reality check and realize how dangerous of a situation you are in. It would be stupid and naive of you to think "oh he'd never actually kick me" or "he'd never run me over". He has already taken the steps to kick at you. There is nothing that would stop him from going farther to attack you.
He kicks at me when I try to make him trot. He has wonderful manners in halter, but NOT in the round pen.
I'm totally assuming here, but I would bet that he doesn't actually have wonderful manners outside the round pen. Horses aren't a switch. They don't turn on and turn off. If he's disrespectful in the round pen, I'll bet he's disrespectful elsewhere.
Does he ever crowd you when you are leading him?
Does he ever spook and pull on the lead?
Will he freely go wherever you point him, and at any speed, while leading?
Etc.
I'm sure there are holes somewhere.
It seems when I hit the whip on the ground at him, that's when he starts kicking, but if I don't, he just stands there. I tried using a leadrope but he still kicks at it. If I try with my hands, he just looks at me like im crazy!
Without seeing your lunging technique, you very well could be doing something wrong with your body position or body language.
Are you sure you are behind his center of gravity when you ask him to move forward?
Are you able to control each piece of his body (shoulders, ribcage, hindquarters) simply with your body language?
I have NEVER hit him hard with a whip and I only tap him.
How do you feel when a mosquito buzzes in your ear? You are REALLY annoyed, right? That is what your tapping does to him. Tap ... tap .... tap .... it annoys him. And he's telling you that by kicking out.
There are very few things where I will seriously get after a horse for. And one of them is kicking. You can bet your **** that that horse will be thinking that he is doing to DIE when I come after him, if they tried to kick at me. They should be deathly afraid for their life. And I am not joking when I say that.
Kicking is dangerous. Period. One landed on your head will
kill you. One landed in your ribcage will puncture a lung and
kill you.
The horse needs to know that kicking at me is a wrong thing to do. And that he "will die" if he tries it.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!
Get a trainer. Someone who you can take lessons from and learn how to handle a horse with dangerous behavior.
Based on your responses to the advice on this forum, I do not believe you are qualified to deal with this horse in a safe manner. He's only 4 years old and he's going to get bigger, and stronger, and the problem will escalate.
I am saying all of this to you,
speaking from experience. I couldn't see past my own nose, until my horse double barrel kicked me 15 feet. I was so very lucky that I got no more than a huge bruise on my thigh. He could have shattered my pelvis. He could have broken my ribs. I was a moron for not seeing the signs slowly develop, and me letting him get away with little things. Until he decided to kick at me.
Don't let it happen to you too.
My friend has tried to get at him but he just gets madder! She couldn't get close enough to touch him with the whip because he was kicking at her so hard! I don't believe in whipping horses but thankyou for your reply!
If the horse deserves it, they need to be whipped. I'm not talking about lashing their skin open or anything of that nature, but they need to understand that kicking is not acceptable.
You must realize that every time your horse is allowed to kick at a person and
get away with it, you are making the habit deeper. Your friend was letting him get away with it because she was not able to stop him.
I have sucsefully trained three other horses on how to be respectful in the round pen, but I can't get control of him. I never let him stop until he makes five rounds in each direction with no kicking, but it's like I'm starting new every time.
3 horses is an accomplishment to be proud of .... but again, makes me seriously doubt your abilities to deal with a difficult and dangerous horse.
I'm not sure how you make him go 5 rounds without kicking, when you can't stop him from kicking???? Sounds like he'll happen to go 5 rounds without kicking (with good luck) but you really aren't stopping or preventing him from kicking, because you can't.
O and I forgot to add that he has been whipped when my friend was in there but he just flips out even more and he had a mark on his coat from it. She still made him do what she wanted to in the end though.
I am confused as well. You just said above that your friend couldn't get near enough to him when he was kicking????? But now she was??? Please clarify.
Thank you and he has always been sort of pushy, but never tries to run over me kick me or bite me except kicking in the roundpen.
And that's what I was talking about earlier. Horses don't have perfect ground manners in one place and then all of a sudden are perfect in another. If he's disrespectful to you in the round pen (and it may be worse there), but he is disrespectful to you everywhere.
You have let him get away with being pushy. Him being pushy has escalated to him kicking at you. You are currently letting him get away with kicking. So what's next? Again, what is stopping him from straight out attacking you?